FOOD TIME BOMB AND PREDICTED STARVATION: THE PROSPECTS OF A HORMUZ TRANSIT DEAL
-Unfortunately, the Iran War and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz promise another phrase that may, time permitting, catch on. This time, it comes from David Milliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and former UK Foreign Secretary:
-“The IRC is warning today of a ticking food timebomb: if the Ukraine shock drove hunger to record highs within weeks, what is now unfolding threatens to be exponentially worse. The window to avert a massive global hunger crisis is rapidly closing.”
-The conflict in Iran had “unleashed a triple emergency: a surge in humanitarian need, a global economic shock, and a system already stretched to breaking point by more than 60 simultaneous conflicts.” The IRC notes, for instance, the plight of specific states: Sudan, threatened by having over half of its fertilisers coming from the Gulf; Kenya, with 40% of its fertiliser complement an 90% of wheat coming from the same region, in addition to serving a a re-export hub for Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Uganda. In Somalia, desperately needed therapeutic food and other critical nutrition supplies lie stranded.
-The World Food Program conducted an analysis last month postulating a grim estimate: almost 45 million more people could succumb to acute food insecurity or worse (designated IPC3+ under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) were the conflict not to conclude by the middle of the year, and if oil prices hovered above US$100 a barrel. 
-“This would add to the 318 million people around the world who are already food insecure.”
-An agreement similar to that of the BLACK SEA GRAIN INITIATIVE reached in July 2022 some four months after the start of the Ukraine War, has been touted as a model.
SEE: Food Time Bombs and Predicted Starvation: The Prospects of a Hormuz Transit Deal - Global ResearchGlobal Research - Centre for Research on Globalization